News
Local

Sault filmmaker rides the rails

A Sault Ste. Marie filmmaker will live and breathe trains for six weeks.

Dan Nystedt is directing and editing DeRailed: The National Dream. The anticipated 90-minute documentary will explore the successes, and challenges, of short-line rail passenger services, including Algoma Central Railway, in Canada.

Nystedt began his trek Wednesday by riding the ACR to Hearst. He'll then travel from Cochrane to Toronto with Ontario Northland Railway. Several other operators, including Guelph Junction Railway and Tshiuetin Rail Transportation, will also be featured.

Nystedt will eventually ride trains thousands of kilometres between New Brunswick and British Columbia.

"We just want to see the state of rail in Canada right now compared to where it was and then, hopefully along the way, get an idea of where it's headed to in the future," he said.

"One hundred years ago, when we were connecting this country by rail, the rest of the world was in awe. Now, 100 years later in this economic downturn we're the only country that's not investing heavily in rail. How did we get to that?"

The documentary, with a budget of slightly more than $50,000, is funded by individual donors, NORDIK Research Institute, Coalition for Algoma Passenger Trains and, possibly, Ontario Arts Council.

One of the producers is Linda Savory-Gordon of CAPT and an associate professor at Algoma University.

Passenger rail, she said, is "rapidly deteriorating" in Canada.

Huron Central Rail service between the Sault and Sudbury will end this summer without $30 million in provincial and federal funding.

Meanwhile, Bombardier is building 80 kilometres of track in South Africa in preparation for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament starting in June. That project has a $3.3 billion US budget.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is investing nearly $1.3 billion for a high-speed intercity passenger rail line that connects Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami and other communities in central and south Florida.

"Yet in Canada we're pulling up the tracks," said Savory-Gordon.

"It's very scary . . . We need to have it in a day of global warming and peak oil. What are we going to do in Sault Ste. Marie when we have no rail connection with the rest of the province, let alone the country, and we can't afford to drive long distances anymore with cars?"

Nystedt will post material to a Facebook site, De-Railed: The National Dream, during his travels.

The documentary will be screened in the Sault later this year and could be used in the classroom with Algoma University students.

Nystedt also directed the documentary about an acclaimed Sault artist Ken MacDougall: the enjoyment of form, was released in 2008.

Two partners from that project, producer Emily Colombo and NORDIK Research Institute, return for his follow-up work.